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Antonio Núñez

CEO Colombia, Nestlé

Francisco Fuentes

General Manager, Grupo Bimbo Colombia

Global food companies are not only focusing on growing their businesses in Colombia, but also on innovating with new products and through promoting healthier eating habits.

What is your company’s impact on the country? 

ANTONIO Núñez Nestlé is a brand with a remarkably important penetration in Colombia. We started local operations 78 years ago, in 1944, and have remained consistent to the essence of the Nestlé brand. Nestlé worldwide is a leading company in nutrition, health, wellness, food, and our entire history in Colombia is related precisely with that mission. This is to deliver to Colombian consumers products of the highest nutritional level and quality, and without forgetting the sensory, and organoleptic quality, while being preferred for our flavor and nutritional proposal. The best way to demonstrate the attachment the Colombian consumer has with Nestlé is to refer to our brands such as Milo, Maggi, and Nescafe, which are uppermost in the mind of Colombian consumers. For me, one of the fundamental elements we are proud of is our mission of delivering nutrition, health, and well-being, and of doing so with a vision of shared value.

FRANCISCO FUENTES We have a clear culture and mission: delicious and nutritious foods in every person’s hands. In Colombia, and as Bimbo Group in general, one key factor is innovation. We are constantly looking to update our portfolio, creating new proposals, and launching new products in order to ensure the wellbeing of our consumers and their satisfaction. We have an extremely high goal, so our foods need to be delicious and nutritious. In the last 25 years in Colombia, we have also become a model for innovation. From here, we have developed important brands that have eventually gone global, such as Vital and Artesano. We are an innovation hub regarding product creation, which is extremely important. We have other products as well, such as 100% Natural Bimbo Bread and 100% Whole Bimbo Bread. We also have a B2C line of frozen products, Bimbo Bread for Home, which was launched during the pandemic. We recently launched another brand, Pa’ Mi Gente (For my people), which focuses on local flavors and products to appeal to the Colombian palate, which we are proud of. At a global level, we have 100 brands with over 13,000 products and 203 production plants in 33 countries, of which seven are in Colombia.

What is your commitment to social responsibility?

AN For the first time, Nestlé published its Creation of Shared Value and Social Responsibility Report that shows the impact that Nestlé Colombia has in areas of shared value creation. We have three major commitments: to people, society, and the planet. We have a role creating shared value with our people and work to accelerate inclusion, diversity, and gender balance. Nestlé is also proud of its commitment to leadership in human rights. We currently have a spectacular project that we call Community and Respect for Life that we have been developing for three years in the communities of Bugalagrande, Andalucia, and Tulua. Our main factory is located in Bugalagrande in Valle del Cauca. What we are looking for is cooperation with the municipalities, the government of Valle del Cauca, the Ministry of Justice, and a wide range of stakeholders where the UN has also been present for some time, as well as the Ideas for Peace Foundation. We are looking to generate a safer community, and contributed to the construction of an Observatory for the analysis of violence. We want to have a positive impact on the livelihood of communities.

FF We seek to bring nutritious and delicious foods to everyone. Our mission “Feeding a better world” can be segmented into three main pillars: initiatives for you, initiatives for life, and initiatives for the environment. In the first pillar, we focus on the consumer. We have seven sales and research centers in different countries, Colombia is an important development hub to innovate and update our portfolio, moving forward with the health and wellness trends that our consumers look for. At this center, we are constantly looking to develop brands and healthy categories that can be the basis for a balanced diet. We are also aware of the need to improve on existing lines in our portfolio as well and adapting them to our consumers’ needs as well as promoting healthy lifestyles. The second pillar, “For Life,” is focused on having a positive impact on communities. In Colombia, we have a program called Good Neighbor with the communities around our research centers and our plants whereby we work together with them to renovate parks, public schools, and libraries. Through the last pillar, “For Environment,” we make a commitment to respect and take care of the environment, knowing we have the responsibility of helping build a better world for future generations.

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